Skinny Girls

Setting: Tiergarten, Berlin
Time: 6pm, Sunday

Scene: Sitting on a picnic blanket with Boy M, Girl M, and Boy H after two hours of boys playing frisbee with some other young Germans.

Girl M: Ok guys, we're going to flip through this People Magazine, and you tell me which girls you'd date just by their picture.
Boys M&H: Ok!
Girl M: [points at everyone from Penelope Cruz to Jessica Simpson to Angelina Jolie to Katie Holmes]
Boy M: Yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes, no, yes, no, no, no, no, yes....(in other words, a mixture)
Boy H: No, no, no, no, no, no, maybe, no, no, no, yes, no, no, no, no, no...(hard to please)
Girl M: [opening to swimsuit page] [to me] Look at her [someone famous and gorgeous] - she has fat thighs! Yay! Don't you feel better?
Me: Yes! I need to see these kinds of pictures....
Boy M: Yeah, she doesn't look so hot.
Boy H: Her shape is funny (Girl M: [interrupting] pear shaped?) but I don't like any of these other girls. They're too skinny. They all need a layer of fat. I don't like skinny girls.

I DON'T LIKE SKINNY GIRLS.

Me: [thinking: What? Really? Is this serious? Can it be true?]

This comment, coming from a 27-year-old guy, world-travelling, highly-educated, and very hot, someone I pegged at first sight to be rather arrogant, somewhat elitist, and out of my league....

For the first time in my life, I felt comfortable being me. Being normal. Being a size 6. Not being skinny.

The feeling was fleeting. But then I remember this conversation, and I feel good being real.